five

Thanks...now if I can only figure out how to change the picture.

What Brett said. The tread has nothing to do with replacement time. Most of us will age out our tires long before the tread is gone.

At 57k, you must have the heaviest Tradition ever made.

Yes, put them down and leave them down, that's what they are for. Plus, it.takes weight off the tires.

Thanks for all the input. Went to an authorized Michelin RV tire dealer today. One tire was way out of balance...problem solved, no more shimmy at 60 or faster.

If over .035, what is the corrective action?

Thanks for the comments...no Tryon, BTW. After several calls and a half dozen selections from the verbal menu, I finally got a real live person on the Michelin 800 #. I don't think they want their people doing any talking, this guy was very hard to understand. Anyway, he found a local Michelin RV dealer and gave me a case number in the event I have a warranty issue. I went by and talked to them today. Sounds like the plan is to do on axle balancing and go from there. Going to take the MH there next week. I'll keep you posted.

As an add on to what Kent said, you really don't have much choice when it comes to MH engines. You can either find the floor plan you like and take the engine it has, or find the engine you like and take the floor plan it has. This is not like car shopping where you have a choice of engines. Usually the manufacturer is going to put an adequate engine in the vehicle to do the job. We opt for floor plan over engine...so far it's worked out fine. We figure we'll spend more time living in it than driving it.

JMHO of course, but that's too old and too many miles for my liking. Granted, that big diesel has lots of miles left on it, but the coach has been lived in for 200k...that's lots of travel and lots of use. The average motor homer puts 5 to 6k a year on a MH. This one has doubled that average. If you are serious, check the tires (the dates), batteries and a function check of EVERYTHING...from toilets to refer to Aqua Hot to water system leaks, stove, etc. There has to be some heavy wear on the inside of that coach...even if it is a Prevost.

Our new to us MH has a shimmy at around 60 mph, but not all the time, about half the time. The steering wheel vibrates quickly moving back and forth and moves no more than a quarter of an inch. The tires are Michelin 315/80R22.5s, 18 months old, not over loaded and properly inflated. So...do I get an alignment check to include thrust alignment, it has a tag, or get the front wheels balanced? Can they be properly balance while mounted, or should they be removed to be balanced? Comments appreciated, thanks.

I have looked at that video a number of times on various forums. It makes no more sense now than when I first saw it. Probably for the first time ever, I'm going to have to disagree with Brett, assuming he supports Michelin's philosophy of adding power in the event of a blow out. I had a right front blowout in May of this year on a very busy interstate. We were cruising at 60 in the coach pictured here, with the cruise control on, well within the tire's weight limit, it was properly inflated and had not aged out. We had just crossed a small bridge, and the emergency services driver thought we had run over something that caused the catastrophic failure. When the tire failed the steering wheel started vibrating rapidly back and forth with a slight pull to the right. I immediately tapped off the cruise control and, as we slowed, gradually moved to the shoulder. The biggest problem we had was that the shoulder was very narrow, with a 45 degree angle drop off. My Velvac mirrors have three lenses, the bottom is oriented on each respective tire, so I could see exactly how far I needed to get off the hard stand before I started down the embankment. Even getting as far as I could into the grass left us dangerously close the highway. Every 18 wheeler that went by, shook the entire coach. The emergency services driver managed to get the remnants of the old tire off, and the new tire on, without removing the rim. As I look back on this experience, the last thing I wanted (or needed) was more speed, or thrust, it would have caused more damage and exacerbated the problem. At no time was I in danger of loosing control of the coach or was the vibration or pull to the right severe. Attempting to accelerate or increase thrust never entered my mind. I have been flying helicopters and airplanes for 45 years and have had my share of exciting experiences. Never have I needed more speed..."slow down and put it on the ground" went through my mind as I inched my way off the interstate. And that's what I did. The Michelin video sounds good and looks good, however, all the scenarios are scripted with safety the primary consideration. It's like a lot of "school solutions," every aspect of the demonstration is planned. However, based on my experience, regardless of the physics, when doing it for real, I doubt it's merit, it just doesn't make sense.

Never have needed to tighten them.

Have you checked the fluid level?

Have you tried calling Velvac? Mine are mounted "inverted," but the botton ones (on the bottom now) are oriented on the front tires. Great way to keep away from curb, right side or too close to the yellow line, left side.

My experience also.

Carefree won't let you do it yourself...it will have to be an RV tech (or dealer) approved by them. They are very hard to deal with.

As a suggestion, in addition to mentioning the horse power, tell us which Cummins it is (ISB, ISC, ISL, etc) would help. More than one engine puts out the same HP.

How fast do you cruise??? My Allegiance, with a 400 ISL, GW 34k, pulling a 2014 CRV at 60, averaged a bit over 8 mpg. Once you go over 60, mpg goes down. My mpg never went under low 7s...it went that low once when bucking a head wind so strong it pushed one of my roof mounted wind shield wipers to the straight out position.

HP is not really too high on what to check. Your towing capacity is normally the lowest of: - GCWR minus weight of MH when ready to travel (loaded). - Hitch capacity. - MH tow capacity. - Chassis tow capacity...some times the last two are different.

What make model coach do you have? Several of us here are trying to find other owners with the 500hp DD.

My Allegiance, on a Spartan chassis, had a filter bay...last basement on the curb side. I could sit on a stool and change both filters. The DD on a Freightliner, still has the filters on the engine...think I'll let somebody else do that when it's time.

JMHO of course, but I would not do that without permission.

I'm no refer guy, but I think that is not cold enough. Our 1402 usually ran around 3 in the freezer.

Appreciate the information. It's hard to find info on the DD series, to include a forum. They do have some interesting maintenance practices. Oil changes are at 35k or 895 hours for RVs...no time restrictions. Same for fuel filters

I called Cummins, Aqua Hot and Onan and they gave me the numbers for fuel burn, here they are (all figures are gallons per hour): 8.9L ISL at idle: 600 rpm .5; at 1,000 rpm 1.0; at 1,200 rpm 1.2 8 KW Onan: no load .13; at 50% load .5; at full load 1.0 AH: .4 I did the math and subtracted the fuel burn from above from the total and computed a new mpg. We recently changed coaches and the new AHs do not have an hour meter. The tech said they want customers to perform maintenance based on the calendar, not the hour meter.